SC order brings child marriages into question

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, October 11

Gender activists today hailed the apex court orders criminalising sex between a man and his minor wife and said the development augurs well for revisiting the legality of child marriages in India.

The Supreme Court declared Exception 2 to IPC;s anti-rape section--Section 375--unconstitutional and allowed a child bride to file a complaint of rape if subjected to sex without consent. The controversial exception reads, "Sexual intercourse by a man with his own wife, the wife not being under 15 years of age, is not rape".

By reading down the said exception in the anti-rape provision of IPC, the court today recognised sex by a man with a wife below 18 years of age as marital rape.

"This is an extraordinary order. This certainly puts question marks on the legality of child marriages in India. The expectation is now from the legislature to also recognize the contradictions between the legality of child marriages and the issue of legal age of marriages which is 18," said top lawyer Colin Gonsalves.

Experts say the order brings the focus back to the legal age of marriage which is 18 and will discourage parents from forcing wards into child marriages.

"Now sex between a man and his minor wife (below 18 years) is a crime. This is a historic order. It will help us position the issue of legal age of marriage better and to also speak of 18 years as being the age of consent for sex, as already stated by the Prevention of Children from Sexual Offences Act which recognised 18 as the age of consent for marriage," says Poonam Muttreja, a population and gender expert.

The debate on the legality of child marriages has been eternal with India home to 23 million child brides but today's order puts question marks on child marriages as it outlaws the consummation of a marriage involving a 15 to 18 year old child.